


Reopening Old Wounds

by partypaprika



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Blackmail, F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-03
Updated: 2017-11-03
Packaged: 2019-01-20 14:23:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12434652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/partypaprika/pseuds/partypaprika
Summary: Robert Fischer had known the rules. But they’d played a different game with him. One that hadn’t just been about money or power—they’d played the game of who he was. And while Ariadne could justify most of what she did, she wondered about the Fischer job.





	Reopening Old Wounds

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Major](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Major/gifts).



Ariadne often thought of her life as a series of befores and afters, turning points that had irreversibly changed the course of Ariadne’s life without any of her input whatsoever.

She remembered when her dad had sat Ariadne and her two brothers down to explain that he’d received an offer to teach at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The family would be moving two states away to a city that Ariadne had never heard of.

Then, there had been the school field trip to Chicago—the city rising up for miles and miles before they hit the heart. Ariadne hadn’t been able to stop herself from pressing her face against the bus’s glass windows as she watched the Carbide & Carbon Building’s dark green tower peak in a gold surprise and the John Hancock Center’s gleaming black façade reaching for the sky.

And what Ariadne had assumed would be the last turning point: Cobb taking Ariadne into a dream and showing her that she could create anything she wanted to—all she had to do was imagine a café, a mirror, the world turning over and it would be so. The mesmerizing and heady power of going into Robert Fischer’s mind and leaving her own imprint.

But Ariadne should have known better than to assume anything. After all, the things that one created often had a way of coming back to bite their inventor in the back.  

 

The Pum Pum Café was familiar to Ariadne in the way that all coffee shops had a sense of ease and familiarity—the smell of roasted beans in the air, artsy exposed brick with no discernable order and a bored barista taking an order from someone who had apparently never ordered coffee before.  Ariadne wasn’t in a hurry, so she let the sounds wash over her as she planned out the rest of her afternoon.

First, it was back to the hotel to pack, then maybe a quick bite at one of the places that Arthur had recommended in Chueca for dinner before heading to the airport.

The short man in front of Ariadne finally finished ordering, so Ariadne waited as the barista wrote the man’s name on his cup. She had a pierced eyebrow and a sleeve tattoo made of up a riot of cascading colors that Ariadne admired while she waited for the barista to finish. When the barista eventually did, eyebrow quirking up and indicating that Ariadne should move forward, Ariadne stepped up and quickly rattled off her order: a latte. Nothing else, thank you very much, Ariadne made sure to smile at the barista even though the barista barely looked once at Ariadne before taking her money and turning to the next patron.

Ariadne wandered over to the pick-up area. She checked her phone: no new messages. Did she want to maybe just eat at the bar at the hotel? It did have an amazing view.

And then, in the second that it took for Ariadne to wonder if she was just being lazy by eating at her hotel, someone bumped her slightly from the side.

“Sorry,” a male voice said in heavily accented Spanish. The voice vibrated deep within Ariadne, familiar in some indiscernible way.

Ariadne turned before she was even aware of it, a similar apology automatically on her lips that died as quickly as it had come. For one brief moment, everything in the coffee shop went quiet as Ariadne focused on Robert Fischer, standing in front of her.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, switching to English and giving her a half-smile. “I didn’t even see you there.”

Ariadne froze. It had been more than a few years since the Fischer job—a lifetime and then some in dream work—but she remembered Robert Fischer. How could she forget him—even putting aside how he had opened a new world for her—when she still dreamt of the mountain fortress, of pushing Robert over the edge of a skyscraper, of taking the plunging leap after him and praying that she woke up. She may have left his dreams, but he hadn’t left hers.

“Not a problem,” Ariadne said eventually, extremely self-conscious. Her brain had fritzed and there was just a playback loop telling her that she needed to de-escalate the situation, play as boring and neutral as possible. There was little chance he remembered her from a brief moment in a dream, but there was every reason to play it safe. So Ariadne pulled out her phone again and looked at it impatiently, all the while wondering ( _praying_ ) that Robert had turned back to his own business, Ariadne already forgotten.

“Excuse me,” Robert said from Ariadne’s side.

_Please don’t do this_ , Ariadne thought.

“Do I know you?” Robert asked.

Even though Ariadne’s heart was beating itself to death, Ariadne made sure she turned slowly and looked at Robert, a pleasant enough smile on her face. Ariadne took some time as if to think and see if she could place Robert, and instead used the moment to examine Robert.

He’d always been handsome and age had settled well on him—his dark hair had a few more strands of gray in them, giving him a refined look and contrasting with his bright blue eyes. He had laugh lines around his eyes and slight bags underneath them that spoke of hard work and long nights. He wore a three-piece suit, one that was expertly tailored and showed that he still maintained a solid work-out regiment. He looked good—really good—and Ariadne felt something simmer that she forced herself to push down.

 “I’m sorry,” Ariadne said apologetically. “I don’t think so.”

Robert looked at her more closely. “Are you sure?” he asked. “You look very familiar—have you ever worked for Fischer Morrow?”

_Quite the opposite_. “No, I think that I’d remember a face like yours,” Ariadne said, her mouth moving before her brain could stop it, and then, thankfully, someone at the counter called her name. “That’s me,” Ariadne said and quickly moved towards the counter to pick up her drink.

She forced herself to walk to the door, not willing to risk a look back and arouse any further suspicions. Best for everyone, especially herself, if Ariadne didn’t make herself any more identifiable—better to just be some familiar looking girl that Robert forgot as soon as he left the coffee shop.

And Ariadne, she would be fine, completely fine. She repeated this mantra to herself as she flagged down the first cab that she saw. When she gave her hotel name, the cab driver switched to English.

“Are you ok?” the driver asked. “If you’re going to be sick, please let me know so that I can pull over before you get sick in the back.”

“Yes, fine,” Ariadne said, trying to push down the rising nausea anyways. “Completely fine.”

 

 

 

When Ariadne had taken the Fischer job, she hadn’t fully understood the implications of what she’d signed on for. What it meant to change something fundamental to a person’s core, their self-worth and direction. Only when Robert had begun to dismantle his father’s empire in the months and years after his father’s death, sending shockwaves around the world, had Ariadne truly grasped what the consequences of her work had been.

Fischer had always been the one job that Ariadne had worried over, even after the shock of dream work had passed. Had she done the right thing? She’d changed someone—had she ruined his life? It stayed with her, sitting in her stomach, a pit to worry over during late nights and long airplane rides.

Sure, Ariadne acknowledged that what she did with dream work wasn’t legal. She had no delusions regarding that, but she found that when she weighed the jobs that she took, her theft essentially boiled down to stealing bits of information from people who had gotten there by using their power, money and privilege. They knew that an attempt at extraction was likely coming. Perhaps they had worked their way to the top through by doing just that. The companies and individuals hiring dream workers played a game amongst people who cheated and stole from other people in real life. Everyone knew the rules.

Robert Fischer had known the rules. But they’d played a different game with him. One that hadn’t just been about money or power—they’d played the game of who he was. And while Ariadne could justify most of what she did, she wondered about the Fischer job. She couldn’t help it.

That night, on the way to the airport, Ariadne shot Arthur a text, just intending to check in and say hi. When Arthur asked how her meetings had gone, Ariadne started to type out, _I saw Robert Fischer tonight_.

After staring at it for long enough that the words began to blur together, Ariadne deleted it. _They went fine_ , she wrote before deleting that as well. Nothing about the evening sat right with Ariadne, and she couldn’t bring herself to lie to Arthur and make it worse. Instead, Ariadne put her phone on silent and hid it at the bottom of her backpack.  

 

 

From time to time, Ariadne took on architectural projects. After all, she did have an impressive architecture degree and it seemed a shame to let it waste completely. Although Cobb wasn’t wrong—Ariadne had been hooked by dream building—there was also something nice about getting real world recognition for her projects. Although she only selectively submitted designs, she’d built up a reputation over the years as an innovative architect.

Hans Sorensson of Sorensson Communications had reached out about designing Sorensson’s new Hong Kong location. It had sounded a little too large scale for the kind of work that Ariadne found comfortable, but the materials that Sorensson Communications had sent over had been enough to pique Ariadne’s interest and his office had been explicit that they would be willing to pay handsomely for Ariadne’s time to put together a proposal and bid.

So Ariadne had done her homework, researching Sorensson Communications. They were a large Scandinavian communications company with an increasing foothold in the Asian market. They described themselves as a company focused on shaping the technological future, although that seemed a bit hubristic.

Currently, Sorensson Communications rented space in a standard Hong Kong skyscraper—beautiful, but nothing to write home about, so Ariadne started putting together some designs and thoughts incorporating their stated cooperative working space and futuristic themes.

Before the design work could go any further, she needed additional company feedback, but Ariadne had taken the liberty of testing out a few ideas in dream space—her current favorite was a soaring sky-blue building, dark green aluminum and glass winding up the sides and capped at the top with gold. Although, that may just have been because she was always partial to bright colors.

Ariadne timed her arrival at Sorrenson’s offices perfectly, showing up five minutes early to her meeting with the Assistant Vice President of Facilities Operations, Kelly Liu. Ariadne had been informed that the Vice President of Facilities Operations and Engineering would also be joining them, which was flattering for Ariadne’s ego.  Security directed Ariadne up to the fifty-seventh floor with enough time to check in with the receptionist and appear prompt but not overeager.

“Name?” the receptionist asked, a young man with dark skin and hair harshly slicked back.

“Ariadne Miller,” Ariadne said.

“Of course,” the man said, smiling fully at Ariadne in a way that made Ariadne feel vaguely uncomfortable. “Please make sure you keep this on you at all times.” He handed Ariadne a laminated ID card with Ariadne’s driver’s license photograph.

“Sure,” Ariadne said, fastening it to her shirt.

“Please wait right here, I’ll call Ms. Nakamura for you,” the receptionist said, so Ariadne stood awkwardly to one side while the receptionist informed Ms. Liu that Ariadne had arrived.

Ms. Nakamura appeared almost instantly and she introduced herself as the assistant to Ms. Liu.

“We’re so excited to have you as part of the process,” Ms. Nakamura said, showing Ariadne down a long hallway, boldly colored walls and stylized portraits lining the way. Sorensson Communications clearly wasn’t afraid to be adventurous in their decorations and Ariadne was impressed, despite herself.

“Of course,” Ariadne said. “I’m excited to work with Sorensson Communications—I love the buildings that you’ve done in Stockholm and London.”

Ms. Nakamura smiled in response and then gestured to a door on Ariadne’s right. “Ms. Liu is expecting you.”

Ariadne opened the door to a conference room, the room opening to floor to ceiling glass windows that gave an impressive view over Hong Kong. But the view wasn’t what took her breath away and made her heart frantically jump up into her throat—there in front of her was Robert Fischer, standing on the opposite end of the table, and Arthur, seated rigidly in a chair, an unknown man with dark skin and short buzzed hair holding a gun trained to Arthur’s temple.

Instinctively, Ariadne turned away, trying to leave just as quickly as she’d come, but Ms. Nakamura stood in the doorway, blocking Ariadne in and Ms. Nakamura casually opened her jacket to reveal a gun safely tucked into a shoulder holster.

“I wouldn’t,” Robert said.

No one moved for a long minute and then Robert said, “Why don’t you come in, Ms. Miller?” Ms. Nakamura looked meaningfully at Ariadne and Ariadne understood the full threat.

Once Ariadne turned around, she risked a glance at Arthur. He looked furious, mouth compressed into a straight line. “I’m sorry,” Arthur said. “I didn’t even know you were in the city.”

“Ariadne, why don’t you take a seat?” Robert said and Ms. Nakamura stepped through the door, closing it behind her, so Ariadne walked over to seat closest to Arthur and carefully sat down, trying to ignore how brittle and scared she felt. It wouldn’t do Arthur or herself any good if Ariadne decided that now was a good time to panic. The fact that they were both still alive, as Robert clearly had the means to track them down, meant that they were likely to stay alive. At least for a little while longer.

“Ariadne and Arthur,” Robert said, interrupting. “You two are a hard pair to track down, much the less get in the same room.”

Neither Ariadne or Arthur responded, so after a long pause, Robert gave them both a wry smile and continued. “Did you know that we once all happened to be on the same flight, from Sydney to Los Angeles?”

Ariadne flicked her eyes over to Arthur, but Arthur didn’t betray any recognition at Robert’s words, so Ariadne kept her mouth shut.

“No?” Robert asked. “Well, that’s alright. I don’t remember much of the flight either—see, I slept for most of it. My dreams were a bit murky, but I did hold onto something from the dream. I remember waking up, feeling as if a burden on my shoulders had been eased.

“Actually, eased isn’t the right word. Removed or maybe I found that it had never really existed. I woke up knowing that despite the decades of miscommunication between my father and myself, it had all stemmed from my dad’s inability to just tell me that he did really love me for me. That he wanted me to succeed on my own terms. 

“An interesting conclusion to arrive at, especially considering the evidence: his long and frequent absences from my childhood, the yelling, his explicit statements that I was a failure. My father and I had spent thirty years in a steady holding pattern: one where I would do everything in my power to please him and he would still be disappointed in his underperforming son.”

Robert stopped and turned towards the window. Ariadne couldn’t help but track his movement—when she did look at Arthur, he shook his head minutely.

“Yet,” Robert said eventually. “It was a conclusion that I felt fully confident in, so much so that I began the laborious task of selling off Fisher Morrow, streamlining it. I had a vision of energy and I wanted to remake the company in my own image. I embarked upon a voyage of no return, slowly watching the company that my father had spent fifty years building begin to winnow away. I meant to only remove parts of it—parts that I felt were no longer necessary or needed. However, I eventually realized that there was no way to only partially dominate an industry. You are either the best or you are nothing. And only then did I realize that instead of remaking my father’s business, I had dismantled it.”

“Mr. Fischer,” Arthur said and the man next to Arthur brought the gun closer to Arthur’s head. Arthur’s jaw clenched, but he continued. “Mr. Fischer, you clearly know who we are. We know who you are. I imagine if you wanted us dead, you would have done so some time ago. Can we please dispense with these pleasantries?”

Robert turned around and his jaw was set harshly, but he jerked his head at Ms. Nakamura and Arthur’s guardian and both of them stepped back, removing themselves from Ariadne’s immediate eyeline.

“Mr. Furst,” Robert said, gesturing to the table where Ariadne only now realized there were several closed folders. Ariadne hadn’t heard Arthur using that last name before—had Robert made his way back to Arthur’s actual identity?

Arthur gave no indication, but leaned forward to pick up the folder in front of him as Robert continued. “You have quite a long list of illegal activities that you’ve engaged in over the years. Some of which the authorities are already aware and others of which the authorities would love to know about. Ms. Miller, you haven’t come to the authorities’ attention yet, although once I present certain evidence to them, I imagine you’ll be in high demand.”

Ariadne carefully picked up the folder in front of her, half wanting to just leave it closed in trepidation, the other half just wanting to get this over with. After taking a mental deep breath, Ariadne opened up the folder and flipped through pictures and statements taken from some of her biggest jobs—it looked like Robert had been building a case against her for battery, assault, corporate espionage, conspiracy and theft.

Even if a court didn’t find the evidence presented persuasive enough to convict her, Ariadne’s career, at least as an architect, would be over. Arthur probably wouldn’t even have that.

“What do you want?” Ariadne asked.

“I would like to go back in time to stop me from making the worst mistake of my life and ruining my legacy,” Robert said.

For a long moment, Ariadne wondered if there was technology out there that manipulated time. It sounded completely crazy and yet, so did dream sharing. But then Robert moved past that. “Seeing how that is impossible, you are going to help me rebuild my father’s empire.”

“How?” Arthur said. “You said it yourself: you’ve dismantled it. You can’t just glue the various companies and divisions back together.”

Robert pushed two folders over towards Arthur and Ariadne. Arthur picked his up, Ariadne let hers stay on the table. “Fisher Morrow is still a successful company, one that heavily specializes in solar and nuclear energy, although it is losing ground every year. Nea Energeia has developed and is in the preliminary stages of testing a new supercapacitor battery, Mirum, which has managed to yield extraordinary energy density. It will revolutionize the renewable energy and overall energy sectors. And we are going to get there first. I don’t need to rebuild the company from scratch—I can get Fischer Morrow back to the top with Mirum.”

“And if we don’t help you?” Ariadne asked.

“Well, if I’m feeling especially angry, I have you killed either here or soon after. If I’m feeling generous, I hand over you and these files to the police.”

Ariadne looked over to Arthur—it felt like a foregone conclusion. When she’d met Robert, years ago, Ariadne would have bet her life that Robert  wasn’t capable of having them killed. But the guns in the room didn’t inspire much confidence in outdated intel.

“Can we have a moment?” Arthur said.

“Absolutely,” Robert said. “Take all the time that you need. I don’t think that I need to remind you that there are no exits from this room. Even if you did get out of this room, there are armed guards stationed at every exit point from this building.”

Robert briskly walked out of the room, followed by Ms. Nakamura and Arthur’s guard. As soon as the door closed behind them, Ariadne slumped down in her chair—the adrenaline leaving her body abruptly.

“I’m sorry,” Arthur said. “I had no idea. I should have been paying better attention to his whereabouts, tracking yours.”

“No,” Ariadne said. “It’s my fault. I—god, I ran into Robert a few months ago in a coffee shop. He thought he recognized me, and I played it off. I thought I diverted him successfully. Clearly I didn’t. I’m so sorry, Arthur—it’s just. It was a dream, from years and years ago.”

Arthur didn’t say anything for a long moment and Ariadne desperately wished that she could do a redo of everything. The coffee shop, the Fischer job, telling Arthur.

“Regardless,” Arthur said eventually and Ariadne selfishly wished that Arthur would just say everything angry he was thinking. “We don’t have too many options here.”

“Whatever you decide, I’ll do it,” Ariadne said. “Either way.”

 

 

 

When Robert came back in the room, Arthur let Robert know that Ariadne and Arthur would be willing to help him.

“But there are conditions,” Arthur said. “We help you on this job and then we’re even—we’re people of our word. Are you?”

“Yes,” Robert said. “You get me Mirum and I leave you alone.”

“And that doesn’t mean that you can hand over our file to the police,” Arthur said. “We do this and we’re actually even, you don’t enact retribution against us. You don’t go looking for any of our colleagues.”

“Fine, contingent on your success. If you’re not successful, then not only do I go after the two of you, but I make sure to track down the other members that assisted you,” Robert said. “I believe that we have a Yusuf in Kenya as well as a Dominic Cobb in the United States. There’s an as-of-yet unidentified additional person, and I guarantee we will track them down as well.”

“We’re going to need access to the full amount of information that you have on Nea Energeia, its personnel and Mirum,” Arthur said.

Robert nodded. “Of course.”

Arthur began going through a list of more pragmatic items that they would need: a warehouse to work, machinery, chemicals, the list went on and on. When Arthur finished, Robert nodded at Ms. Nakamura.

“They should be ready for you by tomorrow,” he said. Even Arthur looked faintly surprised. “I will also be there—consider me your auditor for the upcoming work. I will be there supervising.”

Arthur frowned. “That’s not a good idea.”

“Regardless, that is the reality,” Robert said and then he stood up. “I’ll expect to see you all here tomorrow morning. I’m sure I don’t have to mention what will happen if you try to leave Hong Kong between now and then.”

He was almost at the door when Ariadne found herself speaking without thinking about it. “But why us?” she said. “Yes, you have leverage on us, but you could get almost any other team without the threats and bad blood.”

Robert looked back at Ariadne, meeting her eyes, and for a moment there was a hot flash of burning summer heat racing over her skin. “Because you are the best and I need the best.”

 

 

Ariadne tried not to freak out on the way over to Arthur’s hotel. “I don’t want to repeat myself here, but this is really bad,” she said after they got into a cab.

“Yeah, it is,” Arthur said. “Ariadne, why didn’t you tell me that you’d run into Robert Fischer?”

Ariadne turned and looked out the window, watching the bright lights of the Central District flash by them. “I still feel—felt—bad about the Fischer job. I don’t know. Of all the jobs we’ve ever taken, that’s the only one that has felt fundamentally wrong and I didn’t want to think about it anymore than I had to.”

“Alright,” Arthur said, slowly, still not quite meeting her eyes. “Alright.”

 

 

There was a lot to discuss and Ariadne woke up in the middle of the night on Arthur’s couch, her body twisted in order to fit. The last thing that she’d remembered was discussing whether or not they need to hire an extractor. Arthur had been reluctant to pull someone into it—it would have to be someone from the Fischer job or else Ariadne and Arthur were risking their personal safety and information. It felt like there was too much to do—Ariadne didn’t have time to sleep—but someone (Arthur) had placed a blanket over her, and before Ariadne could force herself up, she let the warmth pull her back under into sleep.

 

 

 

Robert was waiting for them when they arrived back at the Sorensson Communications building. “How did you get the use of the building?” Ariadne asked as he led them through the building to the elevators.

“I rented it out,” Robert said.

“That didn’t seem excessive?” Ariadne asked.

Robert shot her a look. “No.”

“Of course not,” Ariadne said, half to herself. “Why would that be excessive?”

Instead of procuring a warehouse, Robert took them up to the top floor of the building, which had been converted into an open workspace with several tables, desks and computers set up.

“The computers have been set up with the personnel files of Nea Energeia and what we’ve been able to ascertain about Mirum.”

“Good,” Arthur said. “But we’ll also need to engage an extractor to work on this project. If this were another project, I would take that in addition to point. In fact, given what information you hold, I wish that we could afford to let the team be the two of us, but if this is as important as you’ve made it out to be, I don’t want to risk it. I have a list of a few—”

“No,” Robert said. “The more people who are involved, the bigger the risk that Nea Energeia finds out.”

“I understand that, but each of these extractors is incredibly good at what they do and will understand the sensitive nature of the project.”

“No,” Robert said and then sat down, pulling out a laptop from his briefcase. “No one else will be on this project. That’s final.”

“Fine,” Arthur said, his voice tight and sat down at the farthest computer, looking for all the world as if he was entirely focused on that.

After a moment of indecision, Ariadne took one of the laptops nearest to Arthur and opened it up. No time like the present to start looking through personnel files.

 

 

 

The next days passed slowly, bleeding into weeks—long hours in Robert’s building, digging through Nea Energeia’s materials. Each day, Robert joined Ariadne and Arthur in the suite, sitting off to the side and working on his laptop or taking calls for most of the day, while Ariadne and Arthur worked. Ariadne tried her best to ignore Robert, but it was difficult. When they’d last met, Robert had been self-conscious and unsure, uneasy in his own body. Even though Robert had been an adult, he’d been used to living in his father’s shadow—watching for his approval and trying his best to mold himself into something he was not.

The intervening years had changed something: Robert stood taller now, fully contained, and there was an efficient grace to his movements. His focus had changed as well—when he looked at Ariadne, it was with a sharp intent that made Ariadne wonder just what he was seeing at her.

Ariadne told herself that she was watching him because he was the enemy—she had no proof that he would do what he had promised. It made sense to see if she could ferret out any weaknesses or determine if there was another way out of this. And if she didn’t tell Arthur, it was probably because he was most likely doing the same.

 

 

 

Arthur spearheaded the research, absorbing vast amounts of information about the inner workings of Nea Energeia and its critical team, while talking it through with Ariadne. After much debate, they narrowed down the list of potential targets to Alanna Nguyen, Senior Vice President of Research and Development, Michael Lindstrom, Vice President of Power Production, and Stuart Li, Lead Engineer on Mirum.

“We believe that Nguyen, Lindstrom and Li will be best positioned to have intimate knowledge of the Mirum design,” Arthur said, gesturing at the picture of each of the three of them that had been placed up on the board. Below their pictures, Arthur had placed brief descriptions of their jobs and interactions with Mirum, but Robert didn’t look at any of that, just scrutinizing their pictures.

“We can’t make a decision without knowing with certainty what we’re going to be able to find,” Robert said.

Arthur nodded. “I agree and that’s why I’m going to need to actually go and work at Nea Energeia. Engineering needs a new projects coordinator—I won’t be able to glean much in the way of Mirum but I will be able to interface with Nguyen, Lindstrom and Li. Li is my initial preference, due to his proximity to the project, however we won’t be able to make that determination until after I understand what each of them knows.”

Arthur looked to Ariadne. “Ariadne will stay here and begin working on the potential models for Nguyen, Lindstrom and Li.”

“Your files have been very comprehensive,” Ariadne said to Robert. “I should be able to start identifying the best places to place Nguyen, Lindstrom and Li and I can start working on the mazes. As information from Arthur comes in, I’ll be able to supplement the dreamscapes.”

Robert looked at both of them, his face just as emotionless as it always was, and Ariadne found herself abstractly wishing for the Robert who had been scared and who had cried in his dreams. “Do it,” he said and then turned back to his computer. “And let’s make sure that you keep a constant update from Nea Energeia.”

 

That night, Ariadne lay in bed trying to imagine Arthur as a humble project coordinator. While Arthur sometimes went undercover as part of his research, that job largely fell to the forger working on the project with them, due to their con artist skills. It wasn’t that Ariadne didn’t think that Arthur couldn’t do a good job—she imagined that there was a chance that Arthur could be the best project coordinator that Nea Energeia had ever had. But the image was a little bit funny and it made her giggle, which turned into a full belly laugh, the first that she’d had in weeks.

When Ariadne finally calmed down, she felt the familiar bitterness from the past couple of weeks begin to creep up on her. She thought back to that meeting with Robert in Madrid, his blue eyes meeting hers, and wished, not for the first time, that she could make it unhappen.

 

 

“Oh,” Ariadne said, when she walked into what she’d begun to refer to as the workroom and found Robert Fischer there, as always. Robert had been there every day previously, but she’d assumed—or maybe hoped—that he wouldn’t feel the need to supervise when it was just Ariadne. The thought of having Robert constantly in the same room as her, just the two of them, made her feel uncomfortable and itchy.

“It’s nice to see you too,” Robert said, his voice dry.

“So, not that it’s flattering that you might think that I’m capable of masterminding a double cross here, but why are you really here?” Ariadne asked. “With Arthur at Nea Energeia, I’m not sure that there’s any real reason to be here day in and day out.”

Robert looked away from his computer at that, leaning back in his chair. “You know, you have quite a strong reputation in your industry.”

Ariadne’s cheeks warmed but she kept looking at Robert head-on. “Architecture or dream sharing?”

“Both,” Robert said. “Although, knowing what I know, I think that your architecture reputation probably benefitted from your dream sharing work. But, I’ve also been told that your dream sharing architecture is some of the top dream sharing design, if not the best out there.”

Ariadne thought back to countless castles, havelis, skyscrapers, forests, jails and pagodas that she’d created over the years. Each one of them had been stunning, works of art that their intended recipient would never really remember. Only she had been the repository for their vast and vanishing beauty.

“It’s been the most beautiful work of my life,” Ariadne said honestly. Robert just looked slightly confused. “Have you ever done dream sharing outside of militarization training?”

Robert frowned slightly in confusion. “Why?”

“You haven’t,” Ariadne said. “Otherwise you’d know why I was asking. Do you have five minutes?”

Robert watched Ariadne distrustfully while Ariadne retrieved the PASIV device from where Arthur had stored it. She began to set it up near the lounge chairs that she and Arthur had been using, feeling Robert’s eyes on her back the entire time.

When she finished, she turned back to him. “What’s your decision? Five minutes?”

Robert stood up and warily moved towards Ariadne. At this rate, there was going to be a full scale invasion when they entered the dream. Ariadne would be lucky to survive it. She made a mental note to have a gun on her when she woke up in the dream.

“You’re going to like it,” Ariadne said. “Probably.”

“That’s not very reassuring,” Robert said, but he sat down in the empty lounge chair and extended his arm.

Ariadne carefully unspooled the IV lines. “Would you like to do the honors or should I?” Ariadne asked. Robert motioned for the line and watched as Ariadne showed him where to insert it. He kept his eyes on her the entire time, not even blinking as she set the timer and settled back into her chair.

“See you on the other side,” Ariadne said and closed her own eyes.

They were in the middle of a dense forest, large spruce trees surrounding them and letting in green dappled light. She and Robert walked on a barely discernable path, dirt and roots that had slowly been pressed down over hundreds of years.

“Where are we?” Robert asked, looking around, his face lit by a wondering smile. It made him look ten years younger and even more handsome than normal.

“Your dream,” Ariadne said.

“There’s no way, I could never dream this,” Robert said as a large green butterfly flew past him.

“Well, technically, I built the dream. You’ve populated it.”

“You just decide that it’s here and it is?” Robert asked.

“At its essence, yes,” Ariadne said. “I’m the architect—I’ve planned how this dream will look. Sometimes down to the leaves on the trees.” Ariadne reached out and pulled one of the leaves off the tree and handed it to Robert.

As he turned it, the leaf sparkled in the sun, as if it were a jewel. “Wow,” he said and then they came to the edge of the forest where a castle stood immediately to their right and a vast sea stretched out before them, glittering in the sun. “Wow,” Robert said again. “It’s gorgeous.”

“It’s one of my favorites,” Ariadne said. “Although you fill part of it as well—details that complete the scene and make it real for you. Like the dust on this dirt path, the weather or the other people in it. Speaking of which, we should probably hurry, I can already see a few guards around the castle.”

“Wait, what do you mean?” Robert asked.

“Come on, you know this,” Ariadne said. “You’ve been trained for this. Your subconscious doesn’t trust me. Not at all. And even though you’ve willing agreed to come into this dream, your subconscious is fighting you every step of the way. And it will be literally fighting us soon.”

She tossed Robert a gun. “We’ve got the element of surprise on our side. The castle is fairly intricate so once we get inside, we should have a bit more time to explore.”

Using the cover of the forest, they snuck around to the side of the castle where there were two guards on patrol. Ariadne fired first, the silencer on her gun and the forest hiding most of the noise so the second guard didn’t even hear Ariadne coming.

Ariadne couldn’t make herself look at Robert—she wondered how it looked to him, her ease at shooting two of his projections dead without a second thought. So, instead, she kept moving forward, hoping that Robert would keep up as Ariadne fired off a few more shots, taking out the guards standing near one of the practice yards. Just past where an armory would be in a normal castle, there was a movable stone door that blended into the castle walls.

“Come here, quickly,” Ariadne whispered to Robert and he was there, pressed against her side before Ariadne could say another word. “Follow me.”

Ariadne pressed on the stone and it obligingly rotated forward, a medieval revolving door, and walked through. Robert appeared a moment behind her in the small courtyard and garden, stopping just short of Ariadne’s back.

“What on earth?” he said. “Is this kind of flora normal for a castle garden?”

“Probably not,” Ariadne said, feeling smug as she looked out over the rows of perfectly grown roses, tulips, carnations, petunias and lilies. It was a country matron’s dream come true. Literally.

“Stop there!” A man appeared through a door on the far side, gun drawn and Ariadne ducked and pushed Robert down.

“Go go go,” she said and sprinted to a door closer to them, Robert following. They ran through the stone hallways, soft rugs below their feet, preemptively avoiding another group of guards by changing direction before Ariadne got to the stairs that took them to the second floor. There, once she was certain that there were no guards around, she pushed aside an intricate tapestry and opened up the secret door that led to a hidden passageway.

“Good, we should have some time now,” Ariadne said. “This passageway goes between quite a few rooms and your projections shouldn’t be able to find it for a while.”

“What did you design this for anyways?” Robert asked.

“Well,” Ariadne started and then stopped suddenly and couldn’t help but smile widely. “Actually, I don’t think that I can tell you about it. I can’t exactly go around telling you about other jobs that we’ve taken. It’s bad for business. Or so Arthur tells me.”

“Fair enough,” Robert said and although he wasn’t actually smiling like he had back in the forest, his face did look less severe, like he was thinking about smiling, and that made Ariadne feel better.

Ariadne ended up showing Robert down to the extensive library collection and to the vast and meticulously designed ballroom before their time ended. They both woke up back in the lounge chairs in the workroom. As always, the first breath of air felt harsh against Ariadne’s throat and the colors in the room seemed dimmer, duller, as if she was living in a painting which had been covered in dust. She resisted the urge to re-program the PASIV machine for another five minutes and instead stood up and stretched.

When she looked back at Robert, he still lay there, his eyes open but a little dazed and Ariadne felt a swell of understanding. “It’s more than you thought it could be, right?” she said and Robert’s face tightened further. In one quick motion, he undid the IV and stood up, immediately heading for the workroom’s exit, not even stopping to say goodbye to Ariadne.

“Glad you enjoyed it,” Ariadne said, quietly under her breath, and started cleaning up and putting the PASIV away. 

 

Robert gave Ariadne a wide berth over the next few days—barely acknowledging her when she came in each morning and looking increasingly harried as he worked, his mouth a grim slash that became thinner and thinner. He didn’t seem to eat much and despite Ariadne’s protestations, Robert didn’t leave at night until Ariadne left, although he must have known that Ariadne wasn’t likely to try anything more dangerous than sketching out her ideas or doing some CAD modeling. Ariadne felt the weight of Robert’s clearly unhealthy tendencies sit at the bottom of her stomach even though she reminded herself that it wasn’t her problem to care about. After all, he was the one blackmailing her. Let Robert work himself to death.

“I think that I’m ready to start making some physical models,” Ariadne told Robert one afternoon. She’d spent the last few hours working herself up the to the task of approach Robert. It wasn’t that she was actually scared of him—although she should have been—she almost felt embarrassed about how much he hadn’t enjoyed the dream that she’d taken him into.

She'd finally decided to speak when the sun starting to sink towards the horizon. Ariadne got up and joined Robert by the west-facing window. He'd made no move to indicate that he had heard her. Ariadne looked out at the view. It was a shame that there was only the two of them to appreciate the sun lighting up the sky in a haze of orange and red between the skyscrapers. “Arthur’s been reviewing the models that I sent him and we agree that we’re in good shape to start hammering out the details. It’ll be the most effective way to do a first level test of the maze. Once we have a decision on who we’ll be running the extraction on, we can adapt the maze to that person.”

“What kind of materials will you need to do that?” Robert asked.

“Initially, a 3D printer should be good, although I’ll eventually need model materials—I prefer basswood, foam, cardboard—as well as knives, adhesives—maybe I should just make a list. That might be easier.” Ariadne said.

Robert nodded. “Why do you need the models if you can just build directly in dream space? It’s not like material cost is a factor there.”

“Well, two of the more important components of my job are to build a maze sufficiently intricate to keep mark’s projections at bay as well as ensure that there is a place where the mark will subconsciously place the information that we’re looking for. The best way to evaluate that, at least initially, is by having a physical model in the real world that Arthur and I can go through for weaknesses. I can’t bring back dream space models. And my memory may be good but it’s not that good.”

“How do you ensure that the dream version is accurate to the physical model?” Robert asked.

Ariadne began explaining the process by which the dreamer memorized all of the model details and then some in order to ensure that the dream was as they planned it. Surprisingly, Robert actually seemed interested in the mechanics of dream sharing as Ariadne kept explaining. For the first time in a week or so, she and Robert were exchanging more than pleasantries. Something inside of Ariadne eased as they talked, even as Ariadne mentally kicked herself and told herself that of all the stupid things to do on this project, the stupidest was caring about Robert.

“Hey, do you want to order in dinner here?” Ariadne asked. “I’m not sure I’m up for eating at a ridiculously late hour back in my hotel room.”

Robert looked a little off-footed by the non sequitur. “Alright,” he said slowly.

 

They pushed aside their computers for dinner and ate steaks on the main work table, the sound of forks and knives scrapping against their plates as background music to their conversation. Robert initially shied away from the conversation, so Ariadne talked a bit about herself, her experience growing up in Illinois, being an architect. Occasionally, she’d ask a question about Robert that he’d answer vaguely.

He told a story about going to Vietnam to meet with some government officials to potentially privatize the industry, only to almost miss the set of meetings because his taxi driver didn’t understand English and drove Robert to a village three hours away instead of an office three miles away from his hotel.  He laughed when he told the story, for the first time in Ariadne’s memory and it utterly transformed his face along with a deep laugh that seemed to fill the room. When he looked at Ariadne, his eyes sky blue and clear, something deep inside of Ariadne tugged and she thought, _oh no_ , and immediately changed subjects.

 

As the meal wound down, food largely gone and Ariadne pecking at what remained to avoid it ending, Robert revealed that he was divorced, his ex-wife having primary custody of their young daughter and based back in Sydney.

When Ariadne looked surprised at this, Robert’s voice turned bitter. “Proudly following in my illustrious father’s footsteps.”  

“Why?” Ariadne asked.

“Because we are doomed to repeat history,” Robert said and then changed the subject.

 

That night, Ariadne slept fitfully, half-dreaming, for the first time in a while. She’d stopped dreaming with any sort of regularity years ago, but she and Robert were playing a game on grass where the goal seemed to be that Ariadne needed to tackle Robert. He kept dancing out of reach and Ariadne kept reaching for him until Robert finally stopped and Ariadne pushed him to the ground. Robert kissed her and Ariadne eagerly kissed him back. It was so good and so satisfying, Robert rutting against Ariadne and she was almost there—right on the edge when her alarm went off, firmly dragging out of the dream. Ariadne shut off the alarm, but it was too late—the dream was over—and with it, the sense of release that she had been craving for days.

 

 

Ariadne told herself that she needed to put her head down and focus on her work. No more chit chat—Robert barely wanted to talk to her anyways. But when Ariadne arrived that morning, she saw that a 3D printer had already been set up along with enough basswood, foamcore and cardboard to build a model town and what appeared to be an entire store aisle of adhesives, glue, blades, scissors and markers.

“Wow, you don’t kid around, do you?” Ariadne said, a little surprised despite herself.

“Is it what you need?” Robert said, almost nervously, as if it were a life or death situation that Ariadne had her Olfa 9 mm knife.

“Yeah, it’s great. Thank you,” Ariadne said, touched despite herself.  

Maybe it was the dinner or maybe it was something else entirely, but the ice seemed to be permanently broken after that and whatever Robert thought of dreaming, he began to take a stronger interest in Ariadne’s work after that.

“Yeah, he had me showing him the A1 and A2 models today,” Ariadne told Arthur during one of their nightly calls.

“Hm,” Arthur said noncommittally. “What did he say?”

“He asked a bunch of questions about contingency plans. What do we do if the projections are hostile and attach us in the corridor? Are they likely to know about the air vents as a shortcut? That kind of stuff. How’s Nea Energeia?”

Arthur sighed. “It’s coming along. Nea Energeia is very paranoid about their ideas being stolen, rightfully so, but I haven’t yet been able to determine if Li knows about the full implementation of Mirum. It won’t do us a lot of good if we get the underlying frame work for the battery but not how it functions in the overall system.”

Ariadne was silent for a while as she worked through the implications of that. “So you think that we may have to perform two extractions.” It wasn’t a question.

“I think two extractions is just asking to get caught,” Arthur said. “But I think that we may not know who is the better target until it’s closer to the extraction date. Worst case scenario, we have to prepare two extractions fully. I think that we need to be prepared for this.”

When Arthur broke the news to Robert the next morning, he didn’t seem altogether surprised. “What does this mean for us?” Robert asked.

“Well, unless your timeline isn’t as urgent as you’ve led us to believe, this means that we have to double the prep work in case we have to use it. We’ve narrowed it down to Lindstrom and Li, so Ariadne will start preparing the final dreamscapes for Li and Lindstrom. I will be supplementing what we have on Li and Lindstsrom’s personal files with the additional information that I gather while I’m working here.” Arthur sounded curt, which wasn’t especially surprising since Ariadne gathered that neither he nor she would be sleeping much between now and the extraction.

Stuart Li was from San Francisco and had done his bachelor’s and masters of engineering at Stanford before he’d been hired by Edison, then First Power before Nea Energeia. At forty-five years old, he had an impressive pedigree which he’d clearly achieved by devoting the majority of his time and energy to his projects. Li had married young but Arthur confirmed that he was on the verge of separation—Li spent most nights working late at Nea Energeia and his staff said that it wasn’t rare for Li to even sleep there. They knew that Li had fond memories of his childhood in San Francisco, so it made sense for that to form the second layer and for the first to be his laboratory.

Michael Lindstrom was almost the polar opposite—smart and charismatic, rising through the ranks of Nea Energeia after being hired out of business school. Lindstrom had an overly large ego, with two marriages in the rearview mirror, coming up on a third. He knew his stuff, but took advantage of the company travel and reimbursement policies, especially when it came to men and women. Lindstrom was harder to nail down, but he had a particularly favorite hotel that he liked to bring dates back to that seemed promising. He also appeared to have nostalgic fondness for his first wife and their home together, before Lindstrom had been as successful and well-compensated as he was these days. For Lindstrom, the favored hotel would form the base of the first layer and his old house would be the second.

 

 

 

“This seems much larger than Li’s childhood home,” Robert said as Ariadne showed him one of her models. “That being said, I do really like the levels of maze that you’ve introduced here—the symmetry is impressive.”

“Well, symmetry makes it easier on me—less that I have to coordinate and design,” Ariadne said.

“That makes sense,” Robert said, leaning down to pick up the attack to get a better view at the interior. “Wait—wouldn’t you want this door to connect to this one over here?”

Ariadne checked where Robert was pointing: there would be a dream trick there, but if this had been a real building, Robert would have been correct. When Ariadne looked up, she realized that she was almost right up against Robert. Robert looked down at that exact moment and they both froze, so close to each other that Ariadne could feel the warmth radiating off of him.

After a long moment, Robert blinked and Ariadne pulled herself back. “We don’t need to do that because of the way that we can use space in dream space—I’ll show you how, if you’re interested. Essentially we’re able to fold space a little. But, in real life, you’re completely right.”

Robert kept looking and Ariadne turned over Robert’s comment, continuing to digest it. “Actually, that’s pretty impressive that you spotted that. You have a good eye for design,” Ariadne said.

Robert’s face colored brightly. “Not really,” he said.

“No, I mean it,” Ariadne said. “You’ve picked up a lot of the concepts very quickly and can really comprehend the need for attention to detail. Did you ever think—” Ariadne cut herself off.

“Did I ever think what?” Robert asked.

She’d been about to ask if Robert had ever thought about going into architecture or design, but Robert was here, they were all here, because Robert had never been able to let go of his father’s dream. He’d probably never even thought once about being an architect.

“Nothing,” Ariadne said.

 

With Arthur stuck in Colorado for Nea Energeia, Robert began to function as Arthur’s double. Ariadne bounced ideas off of him, walked him through the levels, tested the dreamscape. Ariadne’s initial observation hadn’t been wrong—Robert took to design easily, although he remained fascinated with dream shortcuts.

“But how can the air ducts go through the entire house?” Robert asked as the two of them crawled through the air ducts from Lindstrom’s bedroom to study. “These two rooms aren’t even on the same floor.”

“See, you’re letting real life logic get in the way,” Ariadne said and Robert laughed, crystal clear, echoing down the steel path. When Ariadne turned to look at him, his hair was slightly mussed and he had color high in his cheeks. His beauty took Ariadne’s breath away and she fumbled for a second, warmth stealing all over her body.

By the time that Robert finished laughing, Ariadne had collected herself. She may not have had the desired control over her body’s irrational reactions, but at least she could choose how to deal with it.

“Aha,” Ariadne said after a few more minutes of Robert making the occasional observation as they kept moving. She gestured down to the painted rectangle directly beneath herself and Robert.

“Ready?” she asked Robert. He tugged on his harness once and then nodded. Ariadne pushed down on the rectangle and it slid to the side imperceptibly fast, dropping Ariadne and Robert into mid-air. The harnesses held, however, and Ariadne and Robert were able to lower themselves to the ground.

Robert took a long look at the vaguely impressionistic painting that hung behind the large oak desk. “Are you sure he’ll put it there?”

“Yep,” Ariadne said. “I’m sure. They always do.”

 

 

That night Ariadne and Robert talked to Arthur, Ariadne updating Arthur on the finishing touches that she’d put into the Li and Lindstrom levels.

“Alright, I think we need to go ahead and bring you here,” Arthur said. “I’ll need some time in the dreamscapes and we already aren’t giving ourselves much of a cushion. I think that we’ll have the perfect opportunity next week. Management is pressuring the whole development team to attend a solar energy conference in California.”

“Ok,” Ariadne said. “That gives us, what, four days? Not a lot of time. I’ll leave first thing tomorrow morning.”

“We’ll leave first thing tomorrow morning,” Robert said. Ariadne’s eyes cut to Robert.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Ariadne asked. “They’re going to know who you are. Extensively. If they spot you and think that you’re doing corporate espionage—which, by the way, we are—then we’re going to be screwed. Look, if you’re so convinced that we’re going to screw you over, then I’ll leave something in your possession that makes it impossible for me to do that.”

“Ariadne,” Arthur said.

“Arthur, it’s fine,” Ariadne said. “I have some professional pride. I’ve said I’m going to do this, so I am.”

Arthur stayed silent for once and Robert turned and really looked at Ariadne. That prickling underneath started up again, blood rising to the surface, and for one wild moment, Ariadne had a vision of them settling this an entirely different way—Robert pushing her up against the wall and pinning her there, Ariadne biting at Robert hard enough to leave marks—but Ariadne forced the image out of her mind. She made herself keep looking at Robert, meeting his gaze.

“I’m coming,” Robert said.  

“But,” Ariadne started.

“I’m coming,” Robert said, finality in every syllable.

“Fine,” Ariadne ground out.

 

 

Ariadne didn’t say much for the rest of the call, the anger swelling up, prickling underneath her skin and rushing through her ears. She waited until Arthur hung up and then turned to Robert. “What do you think that you’re going to accomplish by coming with us?” she said. “Arthur doesn’t want to risk you screwing him over, so he’ll let you make stupid decisions, but I’m past that point.”

Robert clenched his jaw. “I need this to succeed—I have staked the entire company on this. And I cannot risk anything that could jeopardize that.”

Ariadne’s mouth dropped at the sheer stupidity. “You’ve staked everything on this? This is by no means a foolproof plan, even if it did go one hundred percent successfully. What if the designs are faulty, what if Nea Energeia has already gotten too far ahead for you to beat them to the finish line?”

“This will succeed,” Robert said, his voice rising.

“And what if it does?” Ariadne said, angry. “You think that will make you happy? It’s not going to get your ex-wife back. It won’t turn you into a magically better parent.”

As soon as it came out, Ariadne knew it had been a mistake, but, stubborn to the last, she refused to look away from Robert’s face. He had an expression that said that if he had any less self-restraint, he would have already lunged for Ariadne.

“You know nothing—nothing—about me,” Robert said, his voice low.

“I’ve spent more time with you than you’re aware of,” Ariadne said.

“You think a few hours in my dreams qualifies you to talk about my life?” Robert asked.

“No—but I saw the look on your face when you thought your dad was telling you to be yourself and make your own way. It was sheer relief,” Ariadne said.

Robert stepped forward and for a moment, Ariadne thought that he might try to hit her, but then he pulled Ariadne to him. Robert kissed Ariadne like she was the enemy, and maybe she was, teeth biting hard and pulling her lower lip. He moved onto her neck as Ariadne began to hurriedly undo Robert’s shirt, the buttons getting in the way of where Ariadne wanted to be, and Ariadne’s panting was impossibly loud in the room.

After a small eternity, both Ariadne and Robert’s clothes were strewn about the floor and Ariadne was leaning back against the table, trying to brace herself against the scattered papers and files. She looked up to see Robert staring at her intently and the question rose to her lips—what were they doing here? Was this really a good idea?

It was a terrible idea and Ariadne knew it down to the very marrow of her bones. But she also knew that she’d wanted Robert since she first walked into that Sorensson room to find his sole attention focused on her. Maybe she’d wanted him since before that.

And then Robert moved forward and the words died in her throat, fled in favor of other sounds and her lips found purchase with Robert’s, overwhelming anything else that she might have been thinking.

 

 

When they were done, they lay there on the floor, Robert’s crumpled pants behind her head, panting slightly. Robert had fucked her like he meant it—like he was trying to prove something, like he desperately needed Ariadne the way that he needed Mirum to succeed. Or maybe that’s just what Ariadne wanted to think.

Neither one of them moved for a long while—Ariadne waiting to see if Robert would say something, Robert probably doing the same. Finally, when Ariadne had been there long enough to start wishing for a shower, she slowly pushed herself up.

“Alright, I think I’m going to head out.” She began tracking down her clothes—wondering how on earth her shirt had managed to get clear across the room—and got dressed. “I’ll see you at the airport tomorrow,” Ariadne said. Robert still hadn’t said anything, so she turned and looked at him. “Robert?”

In lieu of responding, Robert stood up and Ariadne gave herself a moment to fully take in this sight of him as she hadn’t had much of opportunity in the rush earlier. He was long, lean muscles, although he moved with a slight awkwardness, as if he was self-conscious.

He stopped next to Ariadne and she thought, hoped, for one wild moment that he would lean in and kiss her, but instead he nodded. “Yes, see you tomorrow.” And then he picked up his shirt next to Ariadne and began putting it on, as clear of a dismissal as one could get.

 

 

 

As Ariadne’s cab dropped her off at the airport, she reflected that hooking up with someone always felt worse in the light of day. Of course, it was too much to ask that any awkwardness or ill-grace occur prior to the act itself or right after. Karmic punishment for acting impulsively.

When Ariadne had woken up that morning, she’d turned over her feelings to see if she regretted sleeping with Robert. Much to her surprise, she hadn’t, although it had clearly been a rash decision. What was done was done, although it was significantly harder to feel that same determination when the person himself half-ignored her when she entered the Cathay Pacific lounge.

As he turned to her, Ariadne vividly remembered his hands reaching up to grip her wrists, pushing them against the cold ground and she shivered. Robert flushed and turned away, his lips pursed. Maybe there was still some room in there for regret, Ariadne thought to herself.

 

Neither one of them talked much on the flight to Los Angeles. Ariadne dropped off quickly and when she woke up in the middle of the flight, cabin dark except for the floor lights, she saw that Robert was fast asleep, stretched out it the seat in front of her. For a minute, it could have been the Fischer job, Ariadne flush with the newness of dreaming and Arthur, Saito, Dom, Yusuf and Eames sitting in the other seats, ready to start the biggest job of their careers.

Eventually Ariadne dropped back off to sleep and the next time she woke, Robert was up and doing work.

 

By the time that Ariadne and Robert arrived in Denver, Ariadne felt entirely disoriented and cranky. She was also so relieved to see Arthur waiting for them in the bright entranceway of their hotel that she almost burst into tears. But if Arthur thought that anything was amiss in the extra-long hug that Ariadne gave him, he didn’t mention it, instead letting Ariadne pull him close until Robert cleared his throat behind her.

“I’ve got our room keys,” Robert said. “Why don’t we head up to the rooms.”

Once they got up to Robert’s suite, Arthur pulled out a PASIV and began setting it up. “Li is a go,” Arthur said. “I’ve been able to confirm that he supervised the entire development of the Mirum project—he’ll have the best knowledge of what we’ll need. He’s also most likely to be vulnerable to an extraction. I’ve also been told that I’ll be accompanying the development team to the conference, so we’ve got the easy in.”

“Impressive,” Ariadne said.

Arthur just gave her a smug look.

“Are you sure that he’s the best alternative?” Robert asked. For a moment, Ariadne had forgotten that it wasn’t just the two of them, running their usual operation. “Are you positive?”

Arthur gave Robert a withering glare. “Yes. This is what I do for a living. You’ve said that we’re the best, so treat me like it. Li will have the information that you’re looking for.”

“Ok,” Robert said, and apparently that was that.

“Now let’s see just how impressive your Li dreams are,” Arthur said, moment over, and Ariadne groaned, knowing what was going to happen next.

Even though Ariadne wanted nothing more than to go back to her own room and sleep for twelve hours, she, Arthur and Robert ran through the Li scenario, using Robert as a substitute for Li.

The first time through, Ariadne walked Arthur through the two levels of mazes. In Li’s childhood home, Arthur had apparently found a pad of paper and was taking notes that they went through after the walk-through.

“I like the use of the treasure box underneath the bed,” Arthur said once they woke up.

“Thanks,” Ariadne said. She automatically turned to Robert to go through it with him and saw that he had turned towards her as well. Both of them tensed up and then Ariadne deliberately kept moving, taking out the IV and standing up. “My legs are a little cramped—mind if I go for a quick walk before we go through it again?”

Arthur nodded dismissively at Ariadne, writing down some comments on the real notepad in front of him, so Ariadne slipped out the door.

 

 

They went through Li’s levels so many times that night that Ariadne felt like she might as well have lived in the lab for half of her own life. Finally as the sun was starting to rise, Arthur announced that he was satisfied for the moment and he walked Ariadne to her room down the hall.

“You say that you’re done,” Ariadne said, yawning, “But I know that you’re going to make us do it all over again tonight.”

“Well, I do have to get to work now anyways. However,” Arthur said, laughing, “I do think that we’re in a good place.” When he got to Ariadne’s door, his voice dropped low. “Are you ok? You look like shit.”

“Thank you, Arthur,” Ariadne said. “Honesty is exactly what I was looking for after a trans-Pacific flight and staying up all night.”

Arthur smiled. “If you say so,” he said. “Get some sleep, I’ll give you a call in a few hours.”

Ariadne nodded and then stumbled into her room. She didn’t even bother taking off any of her clothes, settling for removing her boots and then dove head first onto the bed.

 

 

 

Ariadne woke up at noon to her phone ringing—it was a number that she didn’t recognize, so she silenced it and let it go to voicemail. She debated letting the warm bed draw her down and back to sleep, but the sun was too bright and it made Ariadne feel guilty for sleeping until the middle of the day.

Ariadne showered, washing off the feeling of canned air and invisible grime that airplanes always left, and got dressed. She made her way down to the lobby and found the least pretentious of the hotel’s restaurants, where she took a back-corner table near the window. The restaurant was no longer serving breakfast, so Ariadne contented herself with a club salad and large coffee and pulled out her sketch book.

Halfway through the salad and five pages of sketches on a sample house in the forest later, a shadow appeared over her notebook and Ariadne looked up to see Robert standing over her. Even though he was the last person that Ariadne wanted to see in that particular moment, Ariadne made herself keep eye contact and give a neutral smile.

“Hi,” Ariadne said.

“Hello,” Robert said. Neither of them did anything.

“Want some lunch?” Ariadne said eventually, giving in and losing whatever imaginary game that they were supposed to be playing.

“Sure,” Robert said and sat down opposite her.

They didn’t talk about anything much during lunch—just trivial banalities or so Ariadne assumed as all of her responses felt like they were on autopilot. She couldn’t stop thinking about the fading red area below Robert’s ear and how stupidly nice his chest was, or the feeling of his chest hair coarse against the palms of her hands. She wondered if it had meant something to Robert. She wondered if it had meant something to her. And so she smiled and nodded in the appropriate places and prayed for deliverance.

 

 

 

Arthur texted that he was taking a few hours of sleep after he finished work and then he came over to their hotel where the three of them reconvened in Robert’s room for another round of run-throughs with Robert acting as Li. This time, Arthur deliberately set off Robert’s subconscious and his militarization training leapt into action. The first time through, the familiarity of Robert’s dreams made Ariadne sloppy. The security guards shot Ariadne in the arm and grazed her thigh and Arthur had to improvise a detonated charge to get into the blocked lab entrance.

“Fuck,” Ariadne said loudly once they got through the door, pissed at herself and in a significant pain.

“Sloppy,” Arthur said.

“Yes, I’m well aware,” Ariadne said.

When Robert saw Ariadne and Arthur enter the lab, his face was tight. “You seemed to be having some difficulty out there,” he said, the implication about their ability to deal with his projections clear.

Arthur started to say something, but Ariadne focused on finding the first aid kit that she’d stored in here so that she could at least address the immediate concern of bleeding out long enough to get to the next level. But before she could dump everything out, Robert magically appeared next to her, so fast that Ariadne automatically pulled out her gun, finger ready on the trigger.

“Woah,” Robert said, pulling short as Ariadne made herself lower her gun, her heart beating fast enough to lunge out of her chest. She holstered it and turned back to the first aid kid.

Robert pulled the first aid kit out of Ariadne’s hands and began to unwind the bandage. His hands were cool against Ariadne’s skin as he wrapped the bandage around her arm. His technique was sloppy, but it didn’t matter—she only had to survive the next twenty minutes or so.

Once Robert finished, he fished out some painkillers from the box. “Shouldn’t you take some…?” he asked.

Ariadne shook her head and gritted her teeth as she stood up. She could already feel the blood clotting on her leg and sticking to her pants. “Painkillers can be a problem with the sedation that we use in the PASIV. I’ll be fine.”

Robert didn’t say anything and Ariadne deliberately avoided looking at him as she walked over to where Arthur had set up the PASIV.  Arthur took one look at Ariadne and raised an eyebrow that Ariadne met head on.

“Ready?” Arthur asked.

Ariadne nodded and seated herself. Robert took his place in the seat next to hers and then opened his mouth as if he was going to ask one more time if Ariadne was ok. Ariadne managed a “Shut it,” and resisted snarling at him letting the somnicin pull her under.

The second level, as it always happened to be, was worse—Ariadne could hear sirens almost from the first, speeding towards them.

Ariadne unfurled herself in the attic, the phantom ache in her arm and leg making itself known as she started heading through the air ducts towards the safe.

Ariadne could hear bullets ricocheting off the windows of the house—the projections likely trying to get in, but thankfully the bulletproof windows held.

“Ariadne, are you there?” Arthur’s voice came over the comms.

“Affirmative,” Ariadne said. “Heading towards the safe.”

“Okay,” Arthur said. “I’ve got eyes on Li.”

 

After the run-through, safe successfully opened but everything else having either fallen apart or completely gone off the rails, Arthur and Ariadne went through the brutal critique, moment by moment while Robert listened and added his own two cents. And then, they did it again.

 

Unlike the previous night, where Arthur had worked them to exhaustion, dealing with militarized projections was too exhausting to do more than a few times in one go. Thankfully, after the fourth or fifth time, Arthur looked thoughtfully at Ariadne and said, “I think we’ve got it down.”

“Thank god,” Ariadne said. “I hate those run throughs.”

“I know,” Arthur said. “But at least you can console yourself with the thought that it’s just a dream. All real limbs are still intact.”

“I’ll try to keep that in mind.”

“Mr. Fischer, any further thoughts?” Arthur asked.

“No,” Robert said. “I’ll go ahead and make the arrangements for the conference.”

With that, Arthur got up and headed out, leaving the clean-up and prep of the PASIV to Ariadne. “Look, I may be almost perfect,” Arthur said, the door already closing behind him, “but even perfection needs more than a thirty-minute nap.” He didn’t bother to wait for a response.

Ariadne cleaned up the IVs and needles and then began spooling the IV lines. She could feel Robert watching her, but couldn’t bring herself to look up.

_Ridiculous_ , Ariadne told herself. She just needed to look up, but she wasn’t sure what she would see when she did.

Finally, she couldn’t avoid it any longer and she forced herself to meet Robert’s eyes. The blue was unreadable and his mouth a grim line.

“Goodnight,” Ariadne said after a long pause.

“Sleep well,” Robert said.

“You too,” Ariadne said.

 

 

They flew into LAX the following day—Ariadne and Robert flying separately from Arthur, who was coming with the rest of the Nea Energeia team.

The majority of the conference participants were staying at a Marriott Courtyard opposite the Anaheim convention center, although to reduce the likelihood of arousing suspicion, Ariadne and Robert had booked rooms at a Best Western down the street.

When they walked into the hotel lobby, Robert looked around, the surprise showing briefly on his face. Ariadne stifled a laugh—Robert had probably never been in any hotel with a less than five star rating.

“It could be worse,” Ariadne said. “It could be a Motel 8.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Robert said, clearly trying to imagine what could be worse than this Best Western.

Ariadne checked them in—no point in having Robert’s name on the register—and then they headed up to the rooms. The rooms were like any other nameless economy chain that Ariadne had been in over the years—bright lights, clean bed, a few furnishings. Ariadne unpacked and then sat down on the bed. This was the part that she always hated—waiting around for the mark to be ready and the job to start. No more tweaking of the dream design, nothing to do but go stir crazy.

Ariadne texted Arthur who confirmed that he and the Nea Energeia team had just landed and were going to head to the Marriott Courtyard hotel.

_Why don’t you grab some lunch and I’ll check in with you afterwards?_ Arthur texted, which was his polite way of telling Ariadne to stop bothering him

Ariadne grabbed her sketchbook and then headed over to Robert’s room. “Lunch?” she asked, ignoring the thrill that ran through her when Robert opened the door.

“Why not?” Robert said. “If I stay here, I’ll just contemplate all the ways in which this could fail.”

“It’s nice to know that my company is at least slightly better than dreading the impending future,” Ariadne said. Robert shot Ariadne a half grateful, half rueful look.

“Ever so slightly,” he said and it felt like a little of the ice that had been between them since Hong Kong thawed, even if just marginally.

 

 

“Is it always like this?” Robert asked.

Ariadne came back to herself to see Robert looking at her with an eyebrow raised at the BLT sitting untouched in front of her. Ariadne must have ordered it at some point, but she couldn’t remember speaking to the waitress or even looking at the restaurant’s menu.

Ariadne shrugged and picked up a half. “Sometimes. It’s not normally quite as stressful as this. Generally we run a three or four person operation—I rarely go into the field. I mean, I can, but that’s not my area of expertise.”

Robert kept watching her so Ariadne forced herself to take a bite. It was surprisingly good. “You know, I don’t think I’ve had a BLT in years,” Ariadne said through the food. “I’m not sure why, I love bacon. I guess it just doesn’t occur to me very often.”

“Well, it didn’t occur to you today either. You were staring off into space and alarming the waitress so I ordered for you.” Ariadne rubbed her eyes and tried not to groan. “I also implied that you were high,” Robert said and he smiled when he said it.

“Wonderful,” Ariadne said, unable to keep herself from smiling back. “Thanks.”

 

 

After lunch, Ariadne tried to take a nap—god knew she needed it with all the jet lag—but the air conditioner was too loud and then it was too warm when she turned it off and the covers were slightly scratchy.

Finally, she forced herself up and she took a long, hot shower, until her skin turned red and pruny. When she got out of the shower, she wiped down the mirror and stared at herself. She looked more severe with her dark brown hair slicked back and Ariadne watched herself in the mirror until the glass began to fog up again.

Some dangerous part of her brain whispered that Ariadne should call Robert up, invite him over. After the job finished, she would probably never see him again. Why not get it out of her system?

The other more rational part reminded Ariadne that Robert was an angry and unhappy man. He held not just her future but her friends’ futures in his hands. He’d staked his life on this job and that made him desperate and dangerous. All of that added up to a very bad combination. 

Ariadne unlocked her phone and thumbed her name over Robert’s number. She held it there for a long minute before she locked her phone and put it down on the bathroom counter. Maybe she would just go and take a walk to get some fresh air instead.

 

 

 

Robert and Ariadne waited until a quarter to one in the morning before heading over to the Courtyard Marriott. It wasn’t cold exactly, but it wasn’t warm either, frost beginning to gather on some of the greenery on the side of the street, and Ariadne found herself rubbing her arms trying to get a little warmth as they waited for Arthur to meet them.

Robert reached over to rub Ariadne’s arms and it had felt so good that Ariadne fully relaxed for a second. Robert looked down at her, his eyes dark, and Ariadne just _wanted_. She wanted Robert so badly, it physically hurt. _Let’s go, right now_ , she wanted to say. Everything was going to change after the job and Ariadne felt certain that it wasn’t going to be for the better. She wanted to make it better, make something better, make Robert better, but that was as futile as trying to build a skyscraper out of foamcore.  

“What are you going to do once we’re done?” Ariadne asked eventually when Robert’s hands were beginning to gradually slow and linger. Robert instantly withdrew his hands.

“I’m going to send it to my engineering department. I expect that we’ll release a product within two months and completely demolish our competition,” Robert said.

“But what about you?” Ariadne asked. “Are you going to back to Australia once your version of Mirum comes out?” She wanted to ask about his ex-wife, but it felt disingenuous so Ariadne left it at that.

“I’ll go wherever I need to be for the company,” Robert said.

“Really? And that’s going to make you happy?” Ariadne said. “You’ll have defeated your competition—the thing that’s been motivating you and the reason that you’ve blackmailed Arthur and myself—and that’s it?”

“Happiness doesn’t figure into it,” Robert said.

“Shouldn’t it? Your dad is dead, he can’t care anymore about how you’re not living up to his expectations. Live up to yours,” Ariadne said.

“Ariadne,” Robert started.

“Wait, listen for a second. Why are we doing this? Tell me why _you_ want us to do this. You can be better than this. Don’t go through with it,” Ariadne said urgently, her voice lowering as she saw Arthur approaching down the block. “Once you do it, you can’t go back. I would know.”

But Robert’s face kept its determined cast, no trace of second guessing, and before Ariadne could say anything else, Arthur was there and handing them room keys to room 437.

 

 

They waited for fifteen minutes after Arthur left, both of them quiet. Robert’s face was hard, his eyes gleaming in the darkness, and eventually Ariadne looked away, preferring the glancing lights of the headlights on the street.

They walked in through the lobby, no one giving them a second glance, and made their way over to the elevator bank. Arthur opened Li’s door right as they arrived, his timing impeccable as always, and deadbolted the lock behind them.

Li was already passed out on his bed and Arthur had arranged two chairs next to Li and the night table where the PASIV machine was ready to go, so Ariadne sat down, unspooled one of the lines, took a deep breath and inserted the IV.

 

 

Surprisingly (or maybe it just felt surprisingly), everything went completely as planned. Li had been militarized, but his instructors had clearly favored the quantity over quality approach and Ariadne and Arthur found Li in his laboratory before Li’s security projections could even identify invaders.

“Dr. Li?” Arthur asked as they approached his desk. Li looked up, bags under his eyes even in dream space. “We need you to review this proposal.”

Li sighed. “Just hand it here,” he said, turning back to his desk and Arthur used Li’s momentary distraction to inject the sedative into Li’s arm.

“Hey!” Li said and then his eyes rolled back, but Ariadne was there to catch him before he fell over.

Between the two of them, they transferred Li to a more secure chair and then barred the door. “Ready?” asked Arthur.

“Born ready,” Ariadne replied.

Again, it was almost too easy—Arthur whispering instructions as Ariadne opened the safe. Ariadne scanned through the patents and diagrams inside it, locating the Mirum pages. Li hadn’t even mentally redacted anything—Nea Energeia would be paying a heavy price for their shoddy extraction defense.

Ariadne took out her own pad and started copying down the important information, repeating it back to herself and rewriting until she was certain that she had it memorized.

“Heads up,” Arthur said eventually, the comm coming to life. “We have about five minutes.”

“Great,” Ariadne said and kept sketching out one of the diagrams until the dream began to fall away from her, one of the beams coming loose in the ceiling and swinging towards her.

When Ariadne woke up, she was sitting in the chair opposite the bed, Arthur on her left hand side. The first breath was the worst of it—a heavy pressure and colors dull until her brain adjusted to reality and the lack of a supporting beam crushing her.

Once she was under control, she turned to look at Li, to make sure that he was still under. Li lay there on the bed, the utter slackness almost indecent and she turned towards Arthur to avoid looking any longer at Li.

Arthur handed Ariadne a pad of paper and Ariadne began to write rapidly, the intricacies of Mirum fresh in her mind’s eye—the design of the circuitry, the chemical compounds, the manufacturers of the battery components—page after page until the most crucial pieces were laid out in front of her.

Ariadne stood up and handed the pad over to Robert, their fingers touching slightly when he grabbed it and the heat traveled up Ariadne’s arm. “We’re even,” Ariadne said and she refused to look at him, instead picking up the PASIV and heading out the door, not even waiting for Arthur. If he wanted to make small talk with the man that would have ruined them, that was his business.

 

 

Arthur caught up with Ariadne just outside of the Marriott. “Are you ok?” he said.

“No,” Ariadne said. “I think I’m going to take a vacation for a while.”

Arthur nodded. “I understand,” he said. His face looking especially young in the streetlamp light as they walked. She’d always assumed that Arthur was five years or so older than herself, but she’d never asked. They could have been the same age for all that Ariadne knew. It had just seemed that Arthur had been born in the dream business—she wondered if it ever got under his skin as well.

When they reached the Best Western, Ariadne stopped just outside the lobby doors. “Will I see you in the morning?” Arthur asked.

Ariadne shook her head. “How long are you going to stay with them before you leave?” Ariadne asked. “Or will you just disappear tomorrow?”

“No need to make any more enemies in our industry than I have to,” Arthur said. “I’m going to behave badly on the last day of the conference and embarrass my boss in front of the CEO. I’m still on my probationary period, so they’ll just fire me.”

“One step ahead, as always,” Ariadne said. She leaned in and pulled Arthur in for a hug. “Take care of yourself.” Arthur tucked his arms around Ariadne and they both leaned there for a  minute before Arthur finally pulled away.

“Stay safe,” Arthur said and Ariadne nodded and then headed into the hotel. 

 

 

 

The knock at the door an hour later wasn’t even a surprise. It felt like an inevitability to open the door and see Robert standing there, his tie slightly loosened and his jacket gone.

He didn’t say anything, just leaned down as Ariadne pushed herself onto her toes, meeting halfway in a hard kiss. Robert pushed through the entranceway, already pulling up Ariadne’s shirt as Ariadne reached for Robert’s pants.

Once their clothes were off, Robert cupped one of her breasts, nails scrapping slightly against her skin and then leaned down to bite hard at the skin, making Ariadne groan loudly enough that she hoped that the walls were very thick.

Turnabout was fair play, so Ariadne gave into the urge to mark Robert as well, letting her teeth scrape across his collarbone. Once they were on the bed, Robert grabbed both of Ariadne’s hands and then pinned them under his right hand above Ariadne’s head. For a long moment, he didn’t move, so Ariadne finally said, her voice so low and gravelly that she almost didn’t recognize it, “Are you going to wait until it’s morning?”

“Would you wait if I did?” Robert asked but before Ariadne could parse that out, Robert leaned over to grab his pants on the side of the bed. He let go of Ariadne’s hands to pull out a condom and tear open the wrapper, but Ariadne kept her hands as is until Robert was situated.

He was rough, rougher than when they’d had sex in Hong Kong, gripping Ariadne’s wrists hard enough to leave marks but even so, Ariadne kept urging Robert for more, faster and harder—she welcomed the thought that she would feel this for days, if not weeks.

When Robert finished, he went down on her, and by the time Ariadne came, she felt raw and scrapped through.

Ariadne meant to get up but she must have dozed off because when she woke up, Robert was up and turning off the lights. Ariadne closed her eyes and kept her breathing even as Robert climbed into bed next to her. Robert pulled the covers up over the two of the and then pressed a kiss against Ariadne’s shoulder before he scooted in close, his head fitting in the space above Ariadne’s shoulder.

Ariadne stayed like that for a long time until Robert’s breathing evened out and his body fully relaxed. Carefully, she slipped out of the bed and got dressed. She didn’t have much to pack, but she did it quietly and it seemed to take forever in the darkness.

Finally, when she was done, she grabbed the hotel notepad and thought about what she could say. _I’m sorry,_ she wrote eventually. _I hope that you find what you’re looking for_. After leaving it on Robert’s shirt, she left.

 

 

 

 

 

Ariadne did her best to make herself scarce after that—she bought a car with cash in LA and began to slowly make her way towards the middle of the country. Her parents were surprised, but pleased when she called them outside of Chicago and she stayed for a few days with them before heading up towards Wisconsin.

She’d built a house off of one of the lakes in Wisconsin after her third or fourth job, flush with the success of pulling off projects that paid more than she could have ever dreamed of making. Her parents and sister knew about the lake house. Arthur probably knew and Eames might have as well, although they’d never mentioned anything about it. And that was the sum total of people who could connect Ariadne the architect with Ariadne the reclusive owner of a secluded lake house.

It was quiet when she arrived—peaceful even—and fall had firmly settled over everything, turning the landscape a riot of color and beauty. Just the way that Ariadne wanted it.

 

 

At first Ariadne didn’t dream much. She had a PASIV machine hidden in her work studio, but for the first time in a long time, she refused to go and get it, even though she had long since stopped dreaming without it. Some part of her kept saying that she might never naturally dream again, but Ariadne did her best to ignore it and tried to let the blankness in her mind at night relax her.

Eventually the dreams started coming back in fits and starts. She would have a short dream where all she saw was a gently waving blue flag. Another night, she dreamed that she was back at a summer camp from her childhood.

She didn’t dream for two weeks straight after a series of partial dreams and it felt like a setback until she woke up from a long dream featuring Ariadne getting pregnant and having to get to the hospital before she went into labor. Ariadne didn’t think she’d ever been so thankful to have a pregnancy dream before.

Although it felt like Ariadne did spend a lot of her time catching up on sleep, she also worked on the other things that she’d been putting off. Reaching out to old professors that she’d missed over the years, seeing her nephew every few weeks. It was nice.

Less nice was Ariadne’s compulsive tracking of Fischer Morrow and Robert Fischer. At first, it didn’t seem like there had been any changes, Mirum knowledge or not, although Ariadne tried to not to hope. But then on December 1, Fischer Morrow issued a press release announcing that they were already in full production of a new supercapacitor—one that could be recharged as if new up to 50,000 times, one that could be recharged in minutes, one that lasted days without recharging. Apparently Fischer Morrow had the final product in place months earlier, only waiting so long to announce it because they’d been shoring up new deals with solar power and energy giants.

When she first read the news, Ariadne scowled and then made a further face at herself. Why did it matter what Robert did—she’d done far worse things.  And he’d blackmailed her! If he wanted this as his life, Ariadne didn’t care at all.

But every few days or so, she looked him up anyways. Robert hadn’t been wrong; Fischer Morrow’s introduction of the supercapacitor was huge in its industry. Robert’s leadership was being hailed in business circles. Suddenly, people forgot about Fischer Morrow’s lean years and spin-offs. Instead, everyone seemed to be saying that Robert had clearly always been up to the task of upholding his father’s legacy.

After the new year, Ariadne’s feet began to get itchy and she started submitting some designs to local community projects under one of her older aliases. It wasn’t anything groundbreaking, just new libraries or schools or the occasional community center. It was easy enough to let a few months pass by like that, designing in her studio, occasionally driving to towns around Wisconsin, Illinois or Minnesota. But she thought of Robert sometimes, at night, the feeling of his hands holding her wrists, his lips on her skin.

Sometimes Ariadne thought of trying to date again—she downloaded some apps, made profiles, but never made it to actually texting or emailing anyone. Maybe it was easier to think of someone that she couldn’t have. Yes, it hurt a little, but it seemed better than the alternative.

After another few months, Ariadne began to dream of building again, her fingers twitching to be able to move mountains and skyscrapers. She dreamed of being a god again, of getting to be the first person to discover a city, to fully understand what it meant to peel a secret out of a magical place.

And then one morning, Ariadne woke up from a dream about the castle that she’d once taken Robert to. He was there, exploring the practice yard, and when he saw Ariadne, he smiled so widely that her chest ached. She reached out for Robert without thinking and he reached back just as easily for her. When Ariadne woke up, the ache had settled itself firmly in her chest even after she brushed off the remaining vestiges of sleep. It was only when she finally got out of bed that she realized she’d been out of the game for exactly a year.

And that was it—the kick in the pants that Ariadne needed. She’d been moping long enough.

“Wow, Ariadne,” Arthur said when she called him. “I half-thought you’d died.”

“No, you didn’t,” Ariadne said.

“No, I didn’t,” Arthur said, the smile evident even over the phone. “How’s Wisconsin?”

“Still got great cheese,” Ariadne said.

“Then clearly well worth it,” Arthur said. They chit-chatted for a while, Arthur filling Ariadne in on interesting developments and the latest gossip. Arthur made it his business to know everything going on within the dream work world and he’d always been willing to share what he learned with Ariadne. That was one of the greatest things about Arthur—he’d never begrudged Ariadne her skills and always pushed her to be better.

“Should I take it that this call signifies that you’re ready to come back into the fold?” Arthur said eventually after they’d meandered into an argument about the latest somnicin developments that neither one of them really cared about.

“Yeah,” Ariadne said with no hesitation. “I’m ready.”

“Thank god,” Arthur said.

“Yes, because my absence was such a trial for you,” Ariadne said.

“You have no idea how great it is to work with you,” Arthur said, very seriously, and even though Ariadne was god-knew how many miles away from Arthur, she still blushed.

“I missed you too,” she said.

 

 

 

Arthur didn’t pull his punches and he, Davidson and Gabriella met Ariadne in Taipei two weeks later to start a new extraction job with Vidicome Technologies. Arthur had allocated three months for prep and dream development, so Ariadne rented herself a small apartment in Daan. Although as always, she clearly should have just gone for a cheap option because the vast majority of her waking hours were spent in the grungy warehouse that Arthur had rented.

Ariadne got home late one night, exhausted and ready to sleep for twelve hours. She’d just finished showering, wiping off her makeup and changing into pajamas when her door phone beeped loudly.

Ariadne walked over to it warily. Who would be calling in the middle of the night? The rest of the team would have just texted or called.

To say that Ariadne was surprised to see Robert Fischer on the video screen was an understatement. Ariadne was beyond surprised, or even shock, and she couldn’t help but stare for a few seconds as Robert cleared his throat.

“Ariadne?” he said. The phone beeped again and Ariadne pressed down on the intercom.

“Robert? What are you doing here?”

Robert looked directly into the camera. “Can I come up?”

“Yes, of course,” Ariadne said and pressed the entrance button before she could second guess herself. That, of course, came immediately after as Robert disappeared from view. She looked down at herself and realized that she was wearing an old t-shirt and ratty pajama bottoms. Did she change? Theoretically she had some lingerie in her dresser, but it was probably crumpled up at the bottom.

She took a step towards her bedroom and then stopped. She’d never change in time. And he was the one who’d shown up in the middle of the night anyways, she told herself. So instead, she waited by the door, heart pounding. Chill out, she told herself.

Robert knocked loudly on her door and even though Ariadne had expected it, it still made her jump and her heart beat frantically as she opened up the door.

Suddenly, there was Robert, in living, breathing color on the other side of the entrance. He was gorgeous, as always, his eyes bright and clear, and he looked so serious, eyes never leaving Ariadne’s face, in a way that felt too decadent for real life. It should be something portioned and saved for late nights and long work days.

“Hey,” Ariadne said eventually.

“Hey,” Robert said.

“How did you know where I was?” Ariadne asked when Robert didn’t make a move to say anything else.

“How did I find you the first time?” Robert asked and he was driving her crazy standing there, not coming in.

“I should really get better aliases,” Ariadne said.

“I’m glad that you didn’t,” Robert said low and Ariadne couldn’t take it anymore, she stepped closer to Robert and then he brought his hand up to cup Ariadne’s cheek. It felt so warm and good that Ariadne turned her face into it before she could help herself and she pressed a light kiss to the base of Robert’s palm.

Ariadne felt a fine tremor go through Robert’s body and it made Ariadne feel powerful—that she could do that.

“Ariadne,” Robert said again, his voice low and hoarse.

“Yes,” Ariadne said and then they were kissing, pressed up against Ariadne’s wall, Robert closing the door blindly behind him. They made their way over to Ariadne’s bed, but once they were there, Robert deliberately slowed, kissing Ariadne until her lips felt swollen and full. Only then did Robert begin to move with intent and before Ariadne knew it, he urged her hips up to slide off her pants and then started pulling her shirt over her head.

From there, everything sped up even though Ariadne desperately willed herself to remember every moment—the mental snapshot of Robert gently biting at her hip as he worked down, the low sound he made when he entered her—it was all too much and she wished that she could have a few hours, a few days, there with just the two of them.

Afterwards, they both lay there and there were so many things that Ariadne wanted to say to Robert, but none of it seemed capable of coming out.  “Was this a trans-Pacific booty call?” Ariadne said finally.

“No,” Robert said.

“What is this then?” Ariadne asked.

“I thought about you a lot since I last saw you,” Robert said. “A lot.” He turned on his side so that he was entirely facing her and Ariadne found herself mirroring him.

“I thought about you too,” Ariadne said, her voice lowering to a whisper.

“It didn’t get better,” Robert said. “Running the company. I hate it.”

“I’m sorry,” Ariadne said.

“You can say, ‘I told you so.’” Robert said.

“I’m sorry,” Ariadne said, more forcefully and she reached out for Robert’s hand, threading their fingers together.

“The happiest that I’ve been recently was working with you in Hong Kong,” Robert said. “And I don’t know if what I want is because that’s who I’ve always been or because your team put it there.”  

“I know,” Ariadne said. She had put it there. She was responsible.

“You’re in my dreams, Ariadne,” Robert said. “You’re always there.”

When Robert reached down to Ariadne’s face, she was surprised to feel something wet beneath his thumb and then realized that they were tears and they were coming from her.

“Stay with me,” Ariadne said.

“Can I?”

Ariadne nodded, her throat too thick for words, but she leaned in to kiss Robert anyways. When she pulled back, Robert scooted closer until Ariadne’s head rested against his shoulder and Ariadne let herself relax, her body learning the shape of Robert’s, as she fell asleep.


End file.
